Our Benedictine Roots
The Benedictine Sisters of St. Joseph Monastery are monastic women who seek God through prayer, community life, and service. These Benedictine Sisters in Tulsa belong to an ancient order which has been a part of the Oklahoma faith community for over 100 years and has had a presence in the Western world for over 1000 years.
The order's namesake, Benedict, left Rome in the sixth century AD. From his home, a cave in the mountains, he lived the life of a hermit. It was here that he worked his first miracle. Shepherds in the area befriended the future saint and began to follow his principles and teachings. Thus began the Benedictine order.
Benedict established his first monastery over 1500 years ago in the hills outside of Rome. This monastery, which he named Monte Cassino, became the first of 13 established by Saint Benedict. By 1100 AD, Monte Cassino was highly regarded as a center of cultural and spiritual life in Western Europe.
In the course of its history, Monte Cassino has been destroyed four times. Its most recent reconstruction restored the abbey as a symbol of the beauty and simplicity of the monastic lifestyle as well as the enduring power of faith.
The teachings of Saint Benedict continue to form the lives of his followers. Tens of thousands of Benedictine men and women worldwide live monastic lives as Saint Benedict modeled in the sixth century.